With lightening flashing across the nighttime sky Tim Brown {Tobaccovile, NC} streaked to victory in the first of two 25 lap features at the Bowman/Gray Stadium while Randy Butner {Pfafftown, NC} thundered his way to the checkers in the second feature.
Brown started on the pole by virtue of him setting fast time earlier in the day. When Brown and outside pole sitter Jason Myers {Walnut Cove, NC} brought the 21 car starting field to flagmans Randy Smith's green flag, Brown wasted no time over powering Myers to lead the event. With no cautions and Brown running in clean air the Hayes Jewelers sponsored #83 clicked off mid 13 second lap times dominating the event pulling out a short lead over Myers who had to defend his position over Jonathan Brown {Winston Salem NC}, Burt Myers (Walnut Cove,NC} James Civali (Davidson, NC} and Bobby Measmer Jr.(Concord,NC)
Those five drivers ran bumper to bumper looking for any advantage to better their position. The only change came on lap 23 when Measner Jr made an inside pass on Civali to take over fifth place.
At the finish line Brown cruised to his second win of 2018 and his 86th victory at Bowman/Gray.
Jason Myers, Jonathan Brown, Burt Myers and Measmer Jr. rounded out the top five. Last weeks winner Civali was sixth.
In victory lane Brown commented, "Car was really good tonight, I got to thank my guys, they busted their tail all week after getting wrecked last week. It was phenomenal the car was really, really good, its fun to drive when they're that good. Its nice to drive away from that Ford in the number 1.
I'm glad to win in my grandpa's memory. I really wanted to win last week but we got wrecked, we did it tonight , that's all that matters, got a lot of love for him and my family and everybody involved."
In the second feature with the starting field inverted, Jimmy Wallace {Winston-Salem,NC} and Daniel Yates (Lexington,NC} lead the pack to green and Yates immediately spun entering turn one. A single file restart put Lee Jeffreys (Wallburg,NC} on Wallace's rear bumper and by the end of lap one , Jeffreys used an outside pass to become the first leader of the event. On lap three Civali and Wallace made contact and Civali's bid for victory ended against the front straightaway wall. Jeffreys again took command while the heavy hitters worked their way to the front.
Measmer Jr. who started 7th now ran in Jeffreys tire tracks looking for the right opportunity to lead. With the laps winding down Measmer used the bump and run method sending Jeffreys spinning in turn four on lap 18. Measner was now the new leader with Randy Butner second, Chris Fleming (Mount Airy,NC) third and Jonathan Brown 4th.
It looked like Measner was about to become the winner of the event but Jeffreys had ideas and cruised at partial throttle waiting for Measner. On lap 22 Jeffreys forced Meassner high on the back stretch and Fleming, who was running second saw an opening down low. Going three wide into turn three, they made contact sending Measner hard into the pit gate exit barrier and Jeffreys into the turn three wall.
This melee gave the lead to Fleming with Butner in the runner up spot. Now it was Flemings turn to go for a spin and that's just what he did with one lap to go, Butner saw an opening on the bottom and went for it but the two touched and Fleming spun handing the win to Butner. Jonathan Brown was second Burt Myers and Jason Myers raced home 3th and 4th.
This was Butner's first win in 2018 and his 17th career win at Bowman/Gray.
Commenting on his pass for the win, Butner said "I would rather finish second than take anybody out but Chris pushed up a little bit and I stuck a nose in there, I guess he didn't know I was there and came down and we got together. I wouldn't have done that for the world. We got to victory lane but I hate it was that way. I want to thank all my sponsors and fans for all the help to get here."
In the twin 20 lap features for the sportsman Dylan Ward (Winston-Salem,NC) made a last lap pass to win his 4th victory of 2018.
Zack Clifton (Walkertown,NC) was second and John Holleman (Winston-Salem,NC) was third.
In the second sportsman feature Justin Taylor (Kernersville,NC) raced to his third win of the year while Andrew Durham (Winston-Salem,NC) and Kevin Neal (Walkertown,NC) rounded out the top three.
by Jim Snape
No comments:
Post a Comment